Caught a handful today on swimbaits and spinnerbaits. Biggest 21 inches the rest in the 16 to 17 inch range. Missed several that blasted my bait right at the boat. Water temp 53 to 55, water getting muddy but not as bad as I thought it would be. Fish were in two feet of water right in the scum in front of reeds and the ones that bit were very aggressive. Windy conditions made it hard for me to fish the deeper pad stems as I was blown too fast to get bait down and gave up on that idea quick. When the front hit I paddled up the creek behind railroad bridge for a quarter mile just looking around and waiting for the wind to lay back down. It only got worse. Headed in early as I didn't want to paddle in the dark.







Water level coming back up. I believe the ramp dock is usable again. Saw four other boats on the water early and never saw them again.


Caught this one way up the creek when the front first hit.



Wished I had waited until Sunday to fish as it was more like work today.

Quite the adventure again, you pick some rough days to fish and still catch them.
I see the lake is back full after all the rain this week and wonder if it will stay that way or drain down into Bob Sandlin again.
Also I never have seen a white bass in Monticello in all my years there but they are in most of the Texas waterways so probably shouldn't be surprised. Thanks for the report and just a couple more weeks then fishing should be good in most all of East Texas.
I fished Athens today Sunday 2/25 and several buck bass but no females or beds yet.

Nice fish.

I checked the TPW Monticello website afterward as I had never caught a white bass in the lake either. I didn't think it would count as a record as I was a quarter mile up the creek. There are some 8 foot holes back there before it gets to an area that was very hard bottom and shallow.


Picture above and below are the end of the line, seen in map:
https://goo.gl/maps/arWRWVviXWz


End of the road for me.

The map below shows an area within a 100 yards of mouth that I believe any size bass boat could wait out a storm from almost any direction if they got caught out behind the railroad bridge. No big trees to blow over on you from any direction and high enough banks to block winds with reeds helping as well.

https://goo.gl/maps/XaD8DiB2zaS2

Some areas of creek you do not want to be when wind is blowing hard and trees all around.

Awesome post and fish. Good job.